As part of the Cultural Infrastructure Plan, an annual audit of pubs using the Inter-Departmental Business Register data is produced.
The most recent report, with data up to March 2022, shows that the overall number of pubs has remained largely unchanged since 2017, making it difficult to see an effect of the post-pandemic period.
- Overall employee numbers have fallen from the 2020 peak and the trend towards larger pubs (with more than 10 employees) appears to have stalled. However, the share of smaller pubs reached its highest since 2015.
- Among local authorities, 9 recorded a decrease in pub numbers, 12 recorded an increase and the rest saw no significant change.
The long-term trends remain the same as reported in the previous iteration of this analysis:
- Overall, pub numbers have declined over the past twenty years in most London boroughs and in the capital overall but employment has increased as the average pub has become larger.
- While the decline in pub numbers reflected an overall UK trend, the number of employees increased by more in London (12%) than the UK average (3%).